AceCalhoon

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	16,558 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	2 years, 10 months
25292 badges		location	Pierre, SD		seen	yesterday

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387 Comments

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May 26	comment	When should I use active defense? @SteffenSchindler You can also make a character with a high wits. Such a character won't deal out much damage, but will be able to parry effectively (and will be great at social scenes).
May 23	comment	How to handle initiative while keeping the spotlight on a duel within a larger combat? Have you read over 7th Sea's initiative rules yet? If so, where are they falling short? It would seem reasonable to switch perspectives every round, with phases/panache giving faster characters more actions per time period.
Apr 25	comment	Can a Pyeryem Mage Talk to a Black/Porte Wolf? @CatLord The wolves have a reasonable Wits score (2), and basic tactics (attack from behind). This suggests they're at least as intelligent as an extremely simple animal, such as a lizard. Personally, I'd also allow Pyeryem mages to speak with them, but twist their motivation enough to make compromise difficult. On the other hand, you could get a lot of mileage out of the "Porte has robbed them of everything, including their voices" angle. Particularly given the antipathy between Porte and Pyeryem.
Apr 13	comment	What is the history and significance of the “dire” prefix to creatures? Well, "dire wolves" is the common name for an extinct species of wolf. The term shows up in Google Ngram all the way back to the 1850s. But bears, etc.? I've been looking for a citation, but haven't found one older than thirteen years ago.
Apr 11	comment	Is there a good way to find out if a Grandmaster exists for a skill? Thank you for the list and the links. It figures that the one I'm after is in the super rare and expensive book :-P
Apr 11	comment	Is there a good way to find out if a Grandmaster exists for a skill? @Okeefe Yep, that's the plan. And knowing the "real" NPC would give me a lot of fodder for designing the quest.
Apr 10	comment	Keeping Lightsabers Out of the Hands of Non-Force Sensitives @Thunderforge The Lightsaber skill can be used to parry brawling, melee, and lightsaber attacks. "Jedi Knights can parry blaster bolts with a lightsaber, but that's only because they have the lightsaber combat Force power; it's very, very difficult for a character without the power to parry blaster shots." -2nd Ed. R&E, page 39.
Mar 26	comment	How would two brute squads fight? @CatLord I guess I'm still missing what your question is then, sorry :(
Mar 23	comment	How would two brute squads fight? @CatLord I've attempted to address your edit.
Sep 6	comment	Should a dedicated sword-and-boarder use their on or off hand for their shield? Whether or not it's historical would be a great question for history.stackexchange.com.
Sep 4	comment	What 3–4 social skills would cover every need? If the question is "what would you name these skills?" could you give us some guidance on what you don't like about "Manipulate, Represent, Investigate?" If the question is "which skills should be included?" could you give us some more information on why your current set is giving you problems?
Aug 30	comment	A class like the “Action Survivor” trope To help refine this question: You've identified Commoner/Expert -> Survivor as a potential path. What makes you question the validity of that path? Is there something about it you're uncertain of? Something you'd like to see improved? Something you don't like?
Aug 28	comment	Reducing Preparation time for Gumshoe GMs Is there any way you could condense/summarize some of the advise pertinent to this specific question?
Aug 28	comment	What are the major differences between D&D 3.0 and D&D 3.5 Quibble: The SRD alone is not actually enough to play WotC's 3.x games. Notably, the SRD doesn't contain rules for leveling up (or the XP tables per level).
Aug 22	comment	Random dungeon/adventure generation system Most "systems" that match what you describe fall under the heading of board games. The Castle Ravenloft board game comes to mind. You may be better off looking for a board game of that sort, and then adding role-playing rules to taste.
Aug 21	comment	Is the use of XP as a narrative currency for both GMs and players a novel idea? There are games that effectively let players spend XP: D6 and (to a lesser extent) 7th Sea both allow spending for certain bonuses. There are also games that have narrative currency (7th Sea has a very limited form of this, and I believe FATE is the stereotypical variant of this). I'm not sure what systems combine the two, though.
Aug 6	comment	Is it possible to produce a bowl-shaped probability curve with dice rolls? The general form of this is: "Take a bell curve (ex. sum n d10 and subtract n), add max/2, mod max." More dice gives a better curve (Source is in the comments).
Aug 6	comment	Is it possible to produce a bowl-shaped probability curve with dice rolls? A note on modifiers: The gain per point actually varies based on your target number; you get the best gains when you are near trivial or impossible difficulties. So going from +7 to +8 is only about a 3% increase for DC 15 and DC 20, but an 8% increase for DC 10. +0 to +1 is a 3% increase for DC 10 and DC 15, but an 8% increase for DC 20.
Aug 3	comment	Diceless miniatures? Neither of these are roleplaying games...
Jul 30	comment	Is there a more streamlined version of the naval combat rules? Still: +1. If I get a chance, I may cannibalize these to build a more perfect system.